I took off across the room upon spotting the gold coffee pots. The older I get, the more modern stuff I like but if I could have one of these, in complete secrecy without anyone knowing so it wasn’t too opulent, I’d like to do it because I find the workmanship beautiful.

The Wedgwood Pottery gets me every time … these were from 1773, a few short years before the birth of the United States of America.

More Wedgwood …

One of the most incredible things about it is that Wedgwood is still in business today. Some of these pieces were around when George Washington was leading troops … when Beethoven was composing symphonies … when the South left the Union … when the European continent was consumed by “The Great War” … when Hitler rose to power … when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor … when mankind went to the moon … the rise of the Internet … it’s been here for it all, still living on as a testament to the skill of its creator who, in a way, remains immortal.

The front of the boulle chest. It was believed to have been built between 1700 and 1720.

The top of the chest … Look at this! A human made this. He conceived it, and made it. With his hands.

The side of the boulle chest … Can’t you hear the Fable theme music? Doesn’t it make you want to buy real estate like in the game, collect your rent and store the coins in here? Or is it just me? I’m not even kidding right now.

We saw the Japanese pottery, wood, and other materials selection …

Japanese figures from the 5th / 6th century …

Japanese handle in the form of an animal head, made as early as 300 B.C. …

Wooden Japanese Buddah from 775 A.D. with traces of gold leaf …

12/14th century Japanese statue …

We saw the Tang Dynasty lead-glazed figurines from China …

I loved the glazed Chinese figures …

Here are some more of them …

And even more. Notice the two civil officials on either side. Bell-bottoms were in style back during the Tang Dynasty, too. There really is nothing new under the sun. This could have been 1970’s California.

This “matronly rider” statue talked about her fat cheeks and double chin. She just looked like a fat, happy grandma.

We came across the Korean pottery!

Goryeo Dynasty pottery from Korea back before they were tragically overtaken by neighboring Yuan dynasty … it immediately made us think of the drama “Faith”.

Aaron and I became so excited to see 15th century Joseon pottery from Korea. Again, blame our drama addiction. And, in this case, Civilization V. Going for a science victory is so much easier with King Sejong the Great. Culture Artifact discovered!

We saw some world-famous paintings …

One of the most famous paintings in the world, American Gothic …

Another famous painting … it makes me feel so sad.

Then, we went to one of our favorite sections. Marble and bronze sculptures are my favorite style of art in the entire museum. The paintings … yeah, they’re nice. To me, at least, they are a pale imitation of the beauty of these things.

The fact a person can make marble look like flowing fabric is wild to me …

There was the Abraham Lincoln bronze …

The Puritan bronze …

The bronze of Daniel Webster …

We walked into another room of paintings, bronzes, and marble sculptures … over yonder there was a particularly powerful one. It is called “The Freedman”.

It stopped me in my tracks. What it represents, and the history leading up to something like this even being created, is almost hard to fathom. It happened. That’s wild.

Here’s the full explanation of The Freedman for those of you who want to learn more about it.

There were American Wild West bronzes …

… all of which looked to me as if they belonged in the Wells Fargo & Company annual report.

I really liked this one, too …

To give you an idea of the scale of some of the bronzes, here is the American bronze room …

We also enjoyed the paintings while we were at the Art Institute of Chicago. Here were some of my favorites …

Bierstadt’s Mountain Brook Painting …

Fisher’s The Prarie on Fire Painting …

Gifford’s Morning in the Hudson Painting … the colors on this one, especially with the frame and the wall plaque and wall itself are just incredible to me.

Head’s Magnolias Painting …

Homer’s The Whittling Boy Painting …

Wood’s The Yankee Pedlar Painting … It reminds me that nobody is above this activity if they want to survive. It’s all sales. Even if you are 3rd generation wealth and have never worked a day in your life, your entire fortune is based entirely on owning assets that involve someone else selling on your behalf or having sold on your behalf at some point in the past. Nothing happens until a sale is completed. Revenue has to change hands. Sales is not a dirty word. It is not beneath anybody. If you think it is, you are either stupid, delusional, or have a complete lack of self-awareness.

We’re going to grab lunch in a grocery store Jimmy wants to show us. He says we’ll love it.

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On our way out, though … you know Aaron and I have a thing for good landscaping.

The simplicity of something like this is one of my favorite things in life. It’s the colors and structure.

It’s always odd to try and fit your life story into a few lines but here is the short version: My name is Joshua Kennon. I’m 36 years old. My husband, Aaron, and I met and fell in love as teenagers. Neither of us ever even dated anyone else – we knew we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. After graduating from high school, we moved from the Midwest to the East Coast where we studied classical music and a wide range of liberal arts.

Later, we returned to the Kansas City area to be near family. During this period, which spanned nearly thirteen years and lasted from our early twenties into our mid-thirties, we started several Internet companies and spent much of our time semi-retired, managing our own wealth thanks to the financial independence those businesses helped us achieve. I also wrote a lot during those years. In fact, the odds are good that you’ve directly or indirectly encountered me many times without realizing it. For nearly 17 years, I was the Investing for Beginners Expert at what was then known as About.com. I am the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Investing, 3rd Edition.

These days, we spend our time running and growing the firm, as we plan on it being the institution through which we pass on our own family’s wealth to our future children and grandchildren. The experience, particularly meeting such incredible people, has been one of the most rewarding of our lives. It’s a rare thing to have a career that allows you to not only do what you love for a living, but to do it with people you admire, respect, and like. We feel like two of the most blessed guys in the world.

This personal blog is a place where I talk about some of the things that interest me – cooking, finance, entrepreneurship, politics, history, economics. I’m really proud of the community we’ve built, in no small part because the typical reader around here is exceptional. Please note that in preparation of the launch of the asset management business, and to better protect our family’s privacy, Aaron and I removed thousands of articles, posts, and comments from this blog, reducing it to a fraction of its former size. This means if you are looking for something that existed prior to us coming out of retirement, the odds are good it simply isn’t available anymore.

Important Information and Disclaimers

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION: This is a personal blog intended for academic, educational, and social engagement among members of a like-minded community. Nothing on this site is intended or should be construed as investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, or legal advice. You are solely responsible for your own financial decisions, agree that you will seek the advice of your own qualified professional advisors, agree that you, and you alone, are solely responsible for any financial consequences or losses as a result of your actions, and use of the site constitutes your agreement that you will not rely upon any information found on the site, including the comments. All text, images, and resources are provided on an “as is” basis with no guarantee of accuracy and with no obligation to update or correct information. For more information, read the terms and conditions. Copyright Joshua Kennon. All Rights Reserved.